Arsenal midfielder Mikel Arteta said their road trip to
Everton could provide the mental boost to propel the Londoners into Europe.
Everton, Arteta's former club, have a game in hand on
Arsene Wenger's men, trailing them by four points in the race for the final
UEFA Champions League spot.While Arteta understood the mathematics behind the
Goodison Park fixture, the Spaniard was looking to get some positivity back
into Arsenal's mindset after three games without a win.
"The game at Goodison is going to be really
important," Arteta said.
"Not only for the result, because there will still
be another five games to go, six for them, but in mental terms.
"It will be a big boost if you win and hard to take
if you don't."
Arteta said a victory over Roberto Martinez's red-hot
side - Everton have won five league matches in a row - could even be the boost
they need to break their silverware drought, with an FA Cup semi-final on the
horizon.
"We want to win it," Arteta said of the FA Cup.
"Do we have to win it? Probably we do. But we really
want to win it as it will mean a turning point for the club.
"You complete a season and win something, you get
some confidence and everything starts rolling.
"Look at Manchester City, and how many years they
had without winning anything. They win the FA Cup (in 2011) and, suddenly, they
have started to build a different atmosphere and a different belief around the
team. We need to do that straightaway.
"After Everton, the Cup is going to be massive. We
know that everyone is waiting for us to win it and we have the added pressure
on us. But it is also a motivating thing. We haven't won anything for almost
nine years so we have a great chance to do it. We can't just throw it
away."
But Arteta's old team-mate Leon Osman has other ideas,
naturally, with the Everton stalwart was in no doubt to the importance of the
fixture against Arsenal.
"Even if we win against Arsenal we still have to try
to finish above them in the league," Osman said.
"At the moment they are in a stronger position than
we are. Arsenal are four points ahead so we are outsiders.
"If we've got genuine aspirations about overtaking
them then we have got to win this game."
Osman said the possession-based game that Martinez has
deployed at Goodison has left them in good stead to make the Champions League
play-offs, a stage Everton reached in 2005-06 before they were cruelly dumped
out by Villarreal.
"No disrespect to the team back in 2005, what we
achieved was fantastic, but we were a team out of possession," Osman, who
made his senior debut at Everton in 2000, said.
"We'd basically let opponents have the ball, defend,
and try to score on the counter-attack. That put us in good stead that season
and we managed to finish fourth on the back of it but we couldn't make the next
step after that.
"Teams were giving us a lot more respect the
following season and we weren't as capable on the ball, we weren't able to
break teams down and change our game.
"Right now we are all about possession and opening
teams up but being patient in doing so.
"If we manage to achieve the top four this season we
will be in a much stronger position."
Culled from Soccerway
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